Following the dazzling narrative of F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, the story of an eccentric millionaire Jay Gatsby as conveyed through the enticing illustrations of Nick Carraway, the subtle early Hint of one of the story’s come to be biggest and most principle themes is planted. Approaching the end of chapter 1, the visual of the concurrently mysterious Gatsby staring into a captivated sight lingers with the reader unexplained. Nick states “he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and far as I was from him I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for …show more content…
“It [was] often synonymous with pleasure seeking and people having a good time after the devastation of the First World War. In America especially, the economy boomed, with mass consumerism arriving...The Roaring Twenties also saw a loosening of social morality, though in America, prohibition saw alcohol outlawed and the subsequent growth of criminal bootlegging” (Pettinger,”The Roaring Twenties”, Oxford). The story’s protagonist Jay Gatsby is an immensely wealthy young man living in a gothic mansion in West Egg New York, (the situation of dominantly “new money” inhabitants). Early in the novel we are not sure how exactly Gatsby accumulated his wealth but are made clear of the extent of his riches through the descriptions of the luxurious things he owns and the extravagant parties he throws often attracting only the most prestige and interesting high status people of the area. Despite his clear success, Jay Gatsby still longs for something. Something that makes all the wealth and riches truly worth while, that being the attention of his former lost love Daisy